Archive for April 2014

Walt Thiessen and Bill Westmiller get into a spitting match over net neutrality, the hazards of computer bugs, and the motives of Supreme Court justices.

The Clive Bundy standoff in Nevada gets some scrutiny ("Mr. President: Waco II"), along with the USSC case on racial preferences. The co-hosts quibble over the details of Net Neutrality Rules proposed by the FCC.

NSA and CIA spying is still in the news, with evidence that housewives using Google do 30% better than the CIA when it comes to intelligence forecasts. Nothing new from Snowden, but his media handler, Glenn Greenwald, musters up the courage to actually visit New York City to receive his journalism award. A new FBI program to store millions of facial profiles from private and public cameras is a new, growing form of surveillance.

After the tax filing deadline (April 15th), Walt Thiessen and Bill Westmiller review news on tax policy, discuss legal challenges to non-profit rules, and new taxes built into ObamaCare.

Regulatory policy and procedures get some intense scrutiny, with a new record high of bureaucratic rules being issued in 2013. Bill and Walt discuss the fact that most laws (rules) are issued by bureaucrats, who have been delegated vague responsibilities by Congress, resulting in 79 thousand pages of new regulations (laws) each year.

White House talking points on the Affordable Care Act get scrutiny from the co-hosts, who review some of the provisions and likely consequences of the program. Bill dives into the numbers to explain why medical insurance rates will take a big hike in August, even though the government will be saving money by cutting reimbursements to physicians and hospitals.

Walt Thiessen and Bill Westmiller discuss early election surveys, government audits reporting billions of "lost" dollars, how corporations evade taxes by strictly following the law, and NSA incompetence.

The hosts review new surveys indicating that 70% of voters believe most politicians can be bought, using their power to benefit friends and hurt enemies. Looking ahead to the 2016 Presidential race, its a contest between Hillary and Rand Paul. Bill suggests they simply cancel the primaries and start campaigning now.

Banks don't have enough money in their vaults to cover their loan risks, so they'll have to find $68 billion to avoid being "to big to fail." The FED is Yellen at them. Congress is worried about corporations who have figured out how to legally avoid $2.1 trillion in taxes: they just leave their profits overseas.

NSA spying has transformed into active propaganda on social networks, particularly in foreign countries. Hundreds of Homeland Security staff spend their time on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, spreading false stories and deception. Just in case they're still reading emails, former President Jimmy Carter has decided not to use email to talk with foreign leaders: he writes letters and mails them.

Walt Thiessen and Bill Westmiller discuss the "rigged" stock market of Flash Trading, the Ryan budget, pending NSA proposals and new revelations on surveillance and torture.

The hosts consider the impact and propriety of Flash Trading - computerized millisecond transactions - in the stock market. The continuing hazard of speculative 10-year federal "budgets" that have no meaning after an election.

Several different proposals for reform of the NSA domestic spying programs are reviewed, with little optimism about whether the surveillance will ever been constrained by the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. The Intelligence Budget and revelations about the hypocritical "cyberwarfare" against China are contrasted with the total ineffectiveness of the government's attempts to enhance "national security".